Pages

The Ministry is a signatory to the collective agreements and as such has a liability to the teachers affected by their inaction regarding Novopay error. Teachers should not be forced to attempt redress from innocent schools. That the Minister Hekia Parata and her associate Minister Craig Foss find the Dishonesty of the Staff of the Ministry of education acceptable is incredible and it calls into question the validity and reliability of all advice from the Ministry. The Ministry seems more like a headless dragon than a cohesive force for the advancement of education in this country.

I wrote to the Ministry of Education seeking information on the Novopay Governance Board Members. This Board is made up of Ministry and Talent2 management along with some “Payroll Experts” from the private sector. The Ministry is being extremely protective of this group and I have uploaded a copy of their response. http://shadow.blogtown.co.nz/files/2012/10/20121012-Rob-Owen-OIA-709797-2.pdf Experience has […]

Fulltime fixed term contract is on offer at the Ministry of Education although it appears they are looking for an internal secondment https://jobs.minedu.govt.nz/jobtools/jncustomsearch.viewFullSingle?

Let’s do that now. You can email details of the error in your payment to Leanne Gibson at leanne.gibson@minedu.govt.nz This would be a huge assistance to the Novopay team who will be able to quickly fix the issues you have using their in house payroll experts. It would also relieve her of having to constantly deny knowledge of the numbers in the media and free her up to give more detailed and relevant information.

Novopay have without notice recovered in full the emergency payments made to staff that missed out in the first Novopay round. This in at least one instance has been done without the required notice or consent detailed in the “Wages Protection Act 1983” . The Ministry’s complete inability to communicate with its victims is astounding. As is the complete in ability to provide honest and timely answers to the questions they are asked. It’s time for Leanne Gibson to fall on her sword and make room for a more professional and competent leader. Her continued involvement should bring the Secretary of Education’s position into question. Now is the time to be talking compensation.

Is the Ministry of Education above the Law? it seems they Believe so. The act is very clear

Non-taxable allowances such as Mileage Allowance have been added to Teachers taxable income and paid at lower than the lowest rate on the civil service scale. I would suggest the Ministry of Education’s payroll provider should be considering a name change from Talent2 to Talentless1 and any other organisation thinking of contracting their services should think again. I attempted to phone the senior management at Talent2 and was told by their telephonist that she was not allowed to transfer calls through. I left my details but the call hasn’t been returned after 8 days.

Novopay is likely to continue to haunt teachers well into the future specifically those that were not employed at the time of the conversion and whose MOE histories have been lost along with their MOE Numbers and income YTD figures. Where a new MOE number has been allocated these teachers are likely to find that when they do find a new permanent or fixed term position that their first few pays (if they get them) will be a huge disappointment. As they run into the new “Salary Assessment Unit” which will pay them at the minimum rate till they are able to prove their qualifications and entitlement. It will of course back pay them at some stage for any money found due. But it raises a real question here Teachers are made to pay for their registration and classroom certificates Police vetting etc. Now this new level exists not at the request of their employer the BOT’s but at the insistence of their “Clayton’s” employer the Ministry of Education.

Adding insult to injury seems to be the talent of the Novopay project. Teachers who missed pays and payslips last round should take a very close look at their PAYE deductions. The hours may be correct this time but the TAX has been calculated as though the earnings were for 2 weeks not 4 as it […]

I suggest to the MinEdu that they make an additional payment to the affected staff equal to the payment that was missed. This would make the payments directly proportional to the missed salary/wages of the individuals. As there are only 19 people involved this should be relatively inexpensive and the money could be recovered from the bonus budget for Senior Management and IT Department within the Ministry. They need to do something quickly or lose any good faith or trust they have left.

Clearly the number unpaid is much higher than the number being claimed by the Ministry of Education. Between the Radio NZ and TV3 Articles, 8 staff in 2 schools are unpaid. Clearly the number 15 unpaid is a gross underestimation. If a bank were trying to operate on a tenth of error rate that has occurred here, they would be out of business before they got started. The Ministry of Education has a lot of trust to recover here and owes and open explanation to the staff affected. Not just meetings with the principals. Some teachers still remain unpaid and no compensation is being discussed when they are contacted.